If you're like me, you love Google and rely on it every day. It's easy to think Google will be around for the rest of time. It won't, and my post explores why a recent decision related to an OFFCP request marks the start of the decline. Here's a taste:

If there's one thing we know through the annuals of time and the history of the enterprise organization globally, it's that nothing is forever. To be sure, there are times when it feels like the position of many of the companies we know, respect and love will last forever. They won't. Here's the basic growth curve that's in play for any company:

1--great idea2--two guys in a garage working on that idea3--capital/equity comes in4--idea catches fire, wild growth phase occurs5--company is either bought or grows into mammoth enterprise6--the magic moment where they cease being a growth company and start looking a lot like the US Postal Service (with great cash reserves)7--the plateau - milking the core business for all it's worth8--the decline9--dead company, or one that's a zombie of it's previous self

For purposes of this post, I'm most interested in #6 - the magic moment where they cease being a growth company and start looking a lot like the US Postal Service (with great cash reserves). It comes in a lot of different ways - even though Microsoft is still very relevant, you can reasonably argue that they are in the plateau, and the magic moment of plateau on the road to decline started when they missed on the internet, starting with the too late decision to do serious development on the web browser, which gave rise to Netscape and is subsequently one of the reasons I'm writing this in Google Chrome.